Any chance it's a HD fault? (Off-Topic)

by Pyromancy , discovering fire every week, Thursday, February 09, 2017, 14:58 (2626 days ago) @ Morpheus

That actually is a possibility, the computer's almost 10 years old...hopefully that would be the actual case, and not a virus that I can't stop!

I have a new drive regardless, but that does make me breathe a little easier.

Yeah, it sounds like a HDD issue. Do you still have the old drive, or did it go to the big scrap pile in the sky? If you still have it you could experiment with it. Run it with a repair disk, try to restore registry files, try to fix the Master Boot Record, etc.

Side note; A few years back I ran across an awesome Malware remover and also a separate registry file restorer that you can run pre-start up on a bootable USB drive. These are amazingly useful for bypassing and fixing a low level issue that won't allow the computer or OS to start up.

Based on everything you've shared it sounds like it was very likely NOT a virus.

If you see this return and happen again on the new drive, try replacing the SATA cable. If it is a cheaply made cable and has a right angle connector, those tend to begin to fail right at the base of the connector.